Blogger Recognition Award

A couple of days back, Akshay Kumar Das nominated me for the Blogger Recognition Award. Thank you, Akshay for thinking about me and honouring my blog.

Akshay lives in Bangalore and wears many hats. He is a Physics enthusiast, a music geek, a painter, a poet, a writer, and has a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He sees science in everything be it spirituality, playing the guitar, or writing poetry. His blog is aptly named ‘Melodies Physics’.

You must visit Akshay’s blog and check out his versatility for yourself.

How My Blog Started

There are two instances that resulted in starting my blog.

  1. Last year I had the opportunity to spend some time in the remote Osla Village. It was a fascinating experience, which changed my perspective in many ways. After coming back, I had posted pictures on Facebook along with a brief description of each, kind of a photo story. Someone I know, got in touch requesting me to write a story on the village for their online magazine – Blank Slates Chronicles. I happily obliged. Till then I had no clue that I could write and that I would enjoy it too. [Click HERE, if you want to read the story on Osla]
  2. When I first trekked the Himalayas in 2016, it was just a random thing I did quite spontaneously without putting much thought to it. However, I was back with a new found love and passion and I just could not stop talking about it. People would say that I exuded energy and my face lit up when I described the Himalayas and my experience of it. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the Himalayas has changed me and in ways more than one. A friend once remarked, “You should write these down, as with time you will forget a lot.” It dawned upon me how right she was! I started writing in word docs and sharing with friends, colleagues, and family. [Click HERE, if you want to read my first trek to the Himalayas].

A few months later, I created a WordPress blog for a very talented friend, who writes fantastic stories and poems but in pen and paper. However, my friend didn’t go digital and never used the blog, she continues writing manually. Instead, I landed up creating a blog for myself.

The purpose was just to store my experiences as a journal, which I could read and relive during later years of life, when I may no longer be able to travel. Ignorant to the world of blogging, I never thought anybody would read what I write. Neither did I know that I would enjoy reading and interacting with other bloggers so much.

That’s the long and short of how I started blogging.

My Advice 

I am no veteran blogger to provide any kind of advice. However, here’s two based on my limited experience in the past one year:

  • Interact with other bloggers. If you are just writing, you are missing out a lot. There’s so much to learn and feel inspired by from many passionate and genuine people out there.
  • Blogging is also about self-discovery. So, explore and go out of your writing comfort zone. You never what hidden talents you may find for yourself. For example, if you blog only poetry have you thought of expressing your thoughts through photographs? You never know what you might discover about yourself.

My Nominations

There are a number of blogs that I enjoy reading and bloggers that I love interacting with. So that I don’t break the chain, I am putting down just two of them.

Hariom Prabhakar Singh: I enjoy reading Hariom’s posts mainly because I share his passion for travel. Do check his blog ‘Travel – My Best Teacher’. Traveling has made Hariom not just a writer but a poet too. The particular story on how he started travelling is a very interesting read. You can find that story HERE.

Kalyan Parimi: I have started following and reading Kalyan’s blogs quite recently. Do check his blog ‘My Part of Life’. Kalyan writes meaningful posts on general topics about life. He writes fiction too. He has a series on letters that I have particularly enjoyed. One of those he has written to his Dad and you will find it HERE.

Hariom and Kalyan, please don’t feel any kind of compulsion to participate. It’s entirely your choice.

The Rules

  1. Thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
  2. Write a post to show your award.
  3. Give a brief story of how your blog started.
  4. Give two pieces of advice to new bloggers.
  5. Select 2-3 other bloggers that you want to give this award to.
  6. Comment on each blog to let them know you have nominated them and provide the link to the post you created.

Author: neelstoria

Traveling, Gardening, Trekking, Hiking, Storytelling, Writing, Nature, Outdoors, Yoga, DIY

39 thoughts on “Blogger Recognition Award”

      1. Why not Neel? I tried my hands in blogging a decade ago but after signing for one, I didn’t write any. The scribbles I wrote were quietly sent to trash from draft folder. So three years ago, as I started exploring this city, the idea of sharing the same took shape in my mind. That’s when I brainstormed if I should write a travel blog or specific to the city? I decided that opportunity to travel is quite limited (that’s how it has been for the past few years) and I’m unlikely to stick to it unless it becomes a habit. Well, the rest is all out here.

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        1. Great to learn more about your journey, Arvind. You are doing quite a unique job of showing us so many facets of Jaipur. It’s a great idea. India is a vast country and its not possible to visit every place and even more in the way a local would, hence a blog like yours does the job aptly 🙂

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          1. Thanks, Neel. Certainly, India is a vast country. I would love to read more about your home state. It still hasn’t been covered enough. Of late, people have started exploring this region but there still are infrastructure issues.

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            1. That’s true. Lot of Meghalaya and also NE as a whole is still not discovered. Even I have been going to new places recently. Earlier there was a lot of unrest so exploring wasn’t safe at all. Its better now, not totally gone though.

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  6. Oh, what a surprise! Thank you for nominating me and many congratulations. As I’ve said earlier, you have been an inspiration for being so energetic and always on your toes to try something new. Wish you many such great moments. 😊

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  9. Congratulations Neel! You deserve the recognition ! I am yet to start a blog of my own, my lazyness & other priorities taking its toll but I diont miss out on your write ups! Hopefully one day I will follow your footsteps & pen down few of my experiences in explorartion of nature! You remain my inspiration, always! All the best!

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  10. Sorry for late reply.. I was stuck with other work.. couldn’t read post..
    Wow… your journey is Supab… thank you so much… for those words about me… I’m overwhelmed to it.
    And about your suggestion… yes interaction with blogger community will increase the horizon of view.. we have 7.2 billion people in the planet.. each and every person is a book by himself.. we don’t know what we can learn sometime from them..
    WordPress platform enables few of those opportunity to learn and let others learn.. by words and content..
    Especially person like you.. who also explore In physically by visiting places.. and sharing about it..
    Thanks a ton..
    Keep writing… #Good time #good day

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